Low-quad mold



M. C. INDAHL. LOW QUAD MOLD. APPLICATION FILED JULY 3,1920.

Patentd Mar. 22, 1921.

HIS ATTORNEY UNITED STATES MAURITZ C. INDAHL, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR T0 LANSTON MONOTYPE MACHINE COMPANY, OF PHILADELRHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPO- RATION OF VIRGINIA.

Be it known that I, Maunrrz 0.1NDAHL, a cltizen of the United States, residing at Philadelphia, county of Philadelphia, State v of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Low-Quad Molds; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had tothe accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, and to the characters of reference marked thereon.

This invention relates to type molds, particularly such as have a dimensioning and ejecting member in the form of a two-part or split mold blade, by the use of which blade parts held together as :one with their forward ends flush, type or type-shoulder high quads, according to the matrix used, may be cast in the mold cavity while by maintaining forward the blade part nearest the matrix, called the upper or supplemental blade, and dimensioning the mold cavity by the other or lower mold blade alone, a so called low quad or space may be cast in the mold cavity and subsequently ejected by movement of the lower blade alone.

Molds of this kind are well known particularly those adapted for use with the equally well-known type casting and composing machines made and sold by Lanston Monotype Machine Company. An example of a mold of this kind is shown in United States Letters Patent No. 1,219,956, dated March 20, 1917. y The general organization of said type casting and composing machines is shown, for example, in Letters Patent No. 625,998 dated May 30, 1899.

The object of the present invention is to provide a low quad mold construction by which types, high quadsand low quads or spaces may be produced, the height of said low quads being preferably between the height of a high quadand an ordinary low quad; and such mold being of suflicient strength and sturdiness as arerequired for a practical commercially used mold. Further objects will hereinafter be specifically pointedout or will otherwise appear in connec tion with the description of the embodiment of the invention shown in the accompanying drawings in which- Flgure 1 1s a perspectlve view of a mold embodying the invention and corresponding Specification of Letters Patent.

LOW-QUAD MOLD.

Patented Mar. 22, 1921.

1920. Serial No. 393,778.

in general organization with the mold shown in the mold patent above mentioned.

Fig.2 is an enlarged perspective View of the twopart mold blade thereof.

PATENT OFFICE. a

Fig. 3 is a reduced elevation of the mold blade, the upper section being in forward position, and certain other mold parts being shown in dot-and-dash lines.

Fig. at is a perspective view of a portion of a modified two-part mold blade, and y Fig. 5 is a perspective view of an assembly of a type, a type shoulder high quad, a stepped quad producible by the mold of Figs. 1,2 and 3, an ordinary low quad and construction shown in Fig. 4;.

The general organization of the low quad mold shown 1n the drawings is well known a modified stepped quad producible by t and requires herein no detailed description H In order to identify it, however, certain parts shown in Fig. 1 willbe referred'to, the reference characters employed being used for the same parts as in the aforementioned mold patent; such as the base plate 1, H the water base and squaring block 2, the

fl'OllhLliflltIIlGIlt 2, the typeblocks 3 and 4, the matrix seats 7, the cross block 8, the shoe 9, the supplemental mold blade carrier 14,

having a latch with operating mechanism 19 provided with a spring 20a1id an operating lever 21, the mold blade retaining plate 22,

the supplemental. mold blade retainingor cover-plate 24 and the guide plate 27.

As has been statedpa mold of the kind shown in Fig. 1 is especially adapted for use in connection with type casting and composing machines of the kind disclosed, for example, in the machine patent above mentioned. Such a machine is provided with mechanism for moving the cross block andthe mold blade of the mold shown herein, for lowering a matrix on the matrix seats of the mold, and for casting typesand quads or spaces in the mold cavity and conveymgthem from the mold to a suitable galle allniovements being, of course, in proper y timed relation for producing accurately dimensioned type bodies and storing them in the galley at commercially requisite speed. The machine is m y qu pp with a suitable low" uad mold operating devicesuchas that s own forexample in Patent No. 962 112 dated June 28, 1910, the construction and operation of which in the form disclosedin said last mentioned patent and in improvements thereof are well known to those skilled in'the art and require no description herein and when equipped with a, low quad mold such as shown herein and with a suitable low quad mold operating device,

low quads or low spaces are capable of being produced automatically, the low quad operating device and mold coacting for this purpose to maintain the supplemental or upper blade forward to close the top of the inold cavity during the time'when the main orlower blade is retracted and the casting function 01 the machine is performed. Such quads are ordinarily about eleven points lower than type high and are serviceable largely because they cannot work up and cause a smudge during printing and because they may be used to form a metal base for printing plates, a certain class of which plates are approximately eleven points in thickness. When the mold produces ordinary quads or spaces eleven points below type high, the upper, or supplemental blade is approximatelyeleven points in height or thickness, being in fact such'dimension less the depth of drive or recess in the, matrix.

. Other printing plates in common use are of varying thickness, certain of them being as low as five points thick. For these thinnerplates the height of the quads must correspondingly increase toward the height of the type shoulder high quad. It is obvious that by merely decreasing the height of the :upper blade to approximately five points and correspondingly increasing the height of-the main blade, a proper height of quad could theoretically beprodnced for supporting such thin'printing plates but such a con struction is wholly impracticable because the delicate thinness of the upper blade; it

would fbe extremely-V frangible in handling and when .used would be broken by the hydraulic force of'thelinjected type metal against its under side unless properly held down from above vforeach cast without a single exceptioiu moreover, especially when guided by and betweenthe fixed type blocks of the mold, the thin, sharp edges of the top blade as well as the said blocks would, as is apparent, become unduly worn in a short time,and grooves would be produced in the blocks thus impairing their guiding time tion. 'Thus the wearing life of the mold would be shortened to animpractical extent and asa result of its weaiatlie types and the quadsproduced by the moldwould shortly be so'lmperfectas to be useless.

' The present invention contemplates a structure. by which a quad of the required height is producible'and all objections, such as are enumerated above, are obviated. The

; mold'blade as shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 2-3, consists of ajlower blade'or section 30 the upper surface of which-in proximity to its forward end is stepped to form the lower step 30 and the upper step 30". The upper section 31 of the mold blade is provided with a transverse projection 25 covered by the cover plate 24-. through which projection a pivot 13 connects the section ill with the carrier 14. The lower face of the upper section is stopped so as to correspond with the steps 30 and 30 of the main blade and is adapted to lit and relatively slide longitudinally upon the stepped surface 30, 30 of said lower section.

The blocks forming walls oi the mold cavity are, of course, type shoulder high: the upper step 3( of the lower blade section is of the quad height desired and may be a any height between high quad high and low quad high; the lower step 30 may be at any suitable height lower than the step 30 and is shown at appri'iximately the height of an ordinary low quad while the step 27-0 is shown at a height about five points below type height. The upper blade steps are of a thickness to bring the height oi the blade as a whole to type shoulder height to agree with the height of the blocks forming the mold cavity walls. A low quad produced by this mold is stepped.- as shown at 1. Fig. 5, its upper surface being at the height ol' the step 30 and its lower step at the height of the step 30 of the lower blade section.

The sliding surfaces between the mold blade sections consist of the horizontal steps. 30, 30 on the lower section, and a guide surface 32 at an angle to the horizontal. as shown, at right angles thereto. and coiiperat ing surfaces on the upper section. The up per section being pivoted at 13 to the carrier 14:, is movable about said pivot in a horizon tal plane and it therefore adjusts itself tions are flush. as shown in Fig. 2. the for ward ends oi? both sections l'orm a wall of the mold cavity and the mold is erpable of producing types or high quads. according. to the matrix used; when the upper section 31 has been extended longitudinally l'or .L

ward relatively to the lower section, as shown in Fig. 3, the lower stepped surface of the upper section is exposed to form the top wall of the mold cavity and the mold is adjusted to produce a stepped low quad.

In the modified construction shown in Fig. 3 the upper blade 31 is provided with a central slot or groove and the lower blade 30? with a corresponding tongue. The stepped quad prodnced" by said mold is shown at b in Fig. 4, and has an upper step, say, five points below type high, and two lower steps, one at each side, these lower steps being, for example, eleven points below type high.

In either construction as well as in numerous obvious modifications thereof, the upper blade is strong and sturdy, even though its upper step may be extremely thin; moreover, the guiding of the upper blade is accomplished by broad surface areas, the upper blade in the preferred form being pivoted at 13 to its carrier and its forward end being free finds its path of movement as guided by the fixed block 3 on one side and the guide surface 32 of the lower blade on the other side. Thus the guiding by the block 3 andthe surface 32 utilizes broad wearing surfaces and the mold is assured of long wearing life. In the modified form, the same result is obtained, the guiding in this case being accomplished by the broad side surfaces of the central step or tongue on the lower blade reacting with the similar surfaces of the inner sides of the lower steps of the upl per blade.

In Fig. 4: are shown, in addition to the preferred stepped quad a, and the modified stepped quad 7), a type 0 and a high quad (Z, producible by the mold shown, and an ordinary low quad c, the latter being eleven points lower than type high and not producible by the mold shown, these various forms being illustrated for the purpose of contrast merely. It will be understood, of course, that the height of the stepped quads,

both as to the upper steps and as to the lower steps is a matter of the heights of the cooperating steps of the upper and lower mold blades and that these may be dimensioned to produce any height desired; the upper step of the quad may thus be made to approach the height of the high quad in one direction and the ordinary low quad in the other direction and a base of stepped quads may be produced for sup porting a printing plate of any thickness, ranging between that suitable for support on an ordinary low quad base and that for support on a high quad base.

. I claim t i l. type mold embodying blocks forming walls of the mold cavity and a mold blade comprising a lower section having a stepped upper surface in proximity to its forward end and an upper section having a lower surface stepped to fit and relatively slide longitudinally upon said stepped surface of said lower section, said upper section being adapted to be positioned either with its forward end flush with the forward end of said lower section whereby the forward ends of both sections form a wall of the mold cavity, or with its forward end extending beyond said lower section to close and an upper section having a lower surface to fit and relatively slide longitudinally upon said upper surface portions of said lower member, said upper section being of a height to bring the height of both sections to type shoulder height.

A type mold embodying blocks forming walls of the mold cavity, a mold blade comprising lower and upper sections longitudinally slidable with respect to each other, the sliding surfaces between said sections in proximity to the mold cavity comprising on said lower section a horizontal surface and a guide surface at an angle thereto, and cooperating surfaces on said upper section, and a carrier for said upper section to which the latter is pivoted for movement horizontally to adjust itself amrinst said guide surface of said lower seclion.

4. A mold blade for a type mold comprising relatively slidable lower and upper sections, said lower section having a stepped. upper surface in proximity to the forward end thereof and said upper section having a lower surface stepped to fit and relatively slide longitudinally upon said stepped surface of said lower section, said sections l'ieing adapted to be positioned either with. the forward ends thereof flush or with the forward end of said uppersection extending beyond the forward end of said lower section whereby said stepped lower surface of said upper section is exposed.

MAURrITZ C. INDAHL. 

